Primary: New Jersey has a mostly closed primary system, in which registered Republicans and Democrats can only vote in their own party's primary, but voters who have never voted in a primary before may choose either party.

Primary competitiveness

New Jersey tied with Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Delaware, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, and West Virginia for having the 22nd most competitive congressional primaries in 2012, with 50% of major party primaries having been contested (12 out of 24). The national average was 54.31%.

Twelve U.S. House incumbents ran for re-election in New Jersey in 2012. 8 of those 12 (66.67%) faced a primary challenger. Nationwide, 200 out of the 386 incumbents seeking re-election faced a primary challenger (51.81%).

Partisan breakdown

Heading into the November 6 election, the Democratic Party held seven of the 13 Congressional seats from New Jersey. However, the state lost one seat after the 2010 census and elected 12 representatives.

Margin of victory for winners

There were a total of 12 seats up for election in 2012 in New Jersey. The following table shows the margin of victory for each district winner, which is calculated by examining the percentage difference between the top-two vote getters. If the race was uncontested, the margin of victory is listed as 100%.

Candidates

Note: Election results were added on election night as races were called. Vote totals were added after official election results had been certified. For more information about Ballotpedia's election coverage plan, click here. If you find any errors in this list, please email: Geoff Pallay.